Lost Light
by 23blenders
Summary: Edit: This is going to be my collection of darkfics. As in, death/pain/suicide that sort of thing. They won't be connected to one another and some may find them to be disturbing. Don't read if you can't handle hearing about depression.
1. Chapter 1

Dart had been training the centurions one day while Pit was taking care of some business on the earth. They were doing a drill on dodging projectiles when Dart got an odd feeling. The amulet that Pit had given him had jerked right before the strangeness, but he hardly had time to wonder about it because he heard a frantic voice calling him.

He didn't understand what was going on at first, but he got a sinking feeling when he saw Palutena'a tear streaked face.

"Dart, Pit's been in a fight. He got stabbed through the heart."

Before the words even had a chance to register, he understood at his core what had happened.

"He got what?!" Dart shouted, already running to her. "I think he might be hanging on..." She trailed off as she turned and went back the way she came, and he saw his twin lying on the ground in the distance. He saw the blood. "Can Viridi fix him? Have you called her yet?" he babbled, barely able to form a coherent thought.

"Yes, she can only teleport to the throne room. Go get her and bring her here." Palutena told him in a shaking voice. He nodded and ran to the throne room and waited for Viridi to show up. Meanwhile, he was internally begging Pit to hang on, to survive, even though he had a terrible feeling that Pit had already given up. He held out for Viridi though.

Despite the urgency of the situation, and the impatience Dart felt, Viridi took a very long time to show up. When she eventually did, he took her to where he could see Palutena and Pit and pointed her there.

He stood and watched her run over, then found that he could not just wait for it to be over. He had work to finish, anyway.

"Back to training, guys. Whatever happens to Pit, we won't find out any faster by standing still." he said hollowly. The centurions were reluctant, but Dart forced them back to training. And when he was done, Pit and the two goddesses were gone from the middle of Skyworld, where Palutena apparently had been when she got the distress call from Pit. He waited outside the temple, where he noted with increasing dread that there was no frantic activity, like there might be if Pit was critically injured, but still alive.

Eventually, Viridi showed up. He was almost sure at this point that Pit was dead, but he asked her anyway.

"Viridi, Pit. Is he..."

"He didn't make it, Dart." Viridi choked out.

He blinked, then after a few moments of silence he turned around and went back to the training grounds. For another hour, he mechanically led centurions through drills and at the time he would normally stop, he went and cleaned up at the hot springs. Then he went inside and sat in his room.

Viridi came in later, and was more composed as she told him that 'He's at peace now'. Then Dart felt a bolt of fury that he did not show. There is no 'at peace' in a violent death, and he was angry with her for suggesting that there was. But he remained impassive, nodding at the right times and making eye contact.

She left, and Palutena came later and wordlessly held him close. He didn't react to this, or the many hugs that followed in the next few days. She thought it might help him, and certainly couldn't hurt although he became more and more annoyed each time it happened. It got to the point where he thought to himself 'don't touch me, don't touch me, don't touch me' every time she approached him. But he said nothing, because he knew she needed to feel like it was useful for him.

A funeral came and went, with others wondering to each other in hushed voices whether Dart was ok when he refused to do more than brush his hand against Pit's cold one. He didn't really need to touch Pit, he already knew what dead things looked and felt like. Despite the attention given to making Pit look like he was sleeping, he looked all wrong. Mostly, his face looked too gray. His lips were blue. Dart felt his eyes sting when he saw his brother lying among the cushions, but he let no tears escape him. His face remained neutral and he spoke no goodbyes to Pit.

He did internally call Pit a fucking moron for not being more careful, not watching out better. Not keeping himself alive.

It was difficult to keep his grief at bay upon seeing Pit up close, but nothing tested him like when Palutena had the body burned. It took all his self control not to take his brother away from the hot flames and save him. Even though Dart knew that would help nothing. He left as the flames started catching on the pyre. He went in his room and with nobody to witness, he let the pain rip through him.

He'd knelt on his bed, facing the foot of it but ended up letting himself fall forward into a ball as pain jolted through his gut. He sobbed into the blankets as he argued with himself that he was not failing Pit by not saving him from the flames. That there was no way he could have saved Pit from death in the first place. It had been a task requiring only one angel, and there was no reason for Dart to go along. If he had, Pit would still be alive, but there had been no reason to think that Dart's presence would help in this task, and the centurions had needed training. And they would continue to need training.

Days passed, then weeks and months, continuing to train centurions. Leaving Skyworld was unthinkable. He didn't want a change right now, when everything in his world had already changed. He was mostly normal, but sometimes succumbed to the grief at odd moments when he was alone and couldn't push away replays of the day Pit had died. He was often angry with Pit, silently cursing the dead angel for leaving.

The worst part was when he came across a joke or a game that he thought was awesome and that he knew Pit would love. He wanted to share it so badly that it ached, but of course nobody else wanted to hear about these things. Palutena knew nothing of many of the things he loved and couldn't properly appreciate them with him. Pit was the only one he could share the things he liked with, and he was gone now. His brother was never coming back. Even though he wasn't alone, he was very lonely a lot of the time.

Neither goddess nor angel entered Pit's room for many months, although eventually Palutena insisted on cleaning it. There was no point in keeping any of this stuff around anymore. Dart didn't want to save any of it, but he also wanted nothing to do with handling it. He left that all to her and she never mentioned it to him.

Dart moved on from Pit, looked to the future. He said his goodbyes, said what he could not when the grief was still fresh. Thanked him for the short time they'd had, and for everything he'd done for the broken clone. Thanked him for showing Dart that he was loved, and allowing him to return it.

He kept his place in Skyworld. Dart saw little point in leaving, at this point. He didn't really want to leave one of the only people besides Pit who cared about him. But he would always bear the scar that losing his twin inflicted on him, and the shortened life would always hurt to think about.


	2. Chapter 2

**I feel like I should put a disclaimer here, and warn readers. This has some serious depression and death, and it isn't pretty. It could very well be triggering. This isn't even the end, because I've decided that this fic will be the dumping grounds for anything dark and really emotionally disturbing that I write. In any case, there's very little of this sort of thing in this section, so I decided I'd create some. And for those of you who don't know, I have a thing for emotionally breaking both angels, Pit especially. I usually resist the urge to do so, but I really want to write some of it. So yeah, I break Pit here.**

* * *

It began with Pit's wings.

Awhile after the war, they finally grew out. Naturally, this was a cause for great joy and celebration for the young angel. Palutena clapped and laughed as he showed off, and had to remind him not to strain them too much or he'd hurt himself. He laughed off the warning and flew to his heart's content, ignoring the cramps he'd get in his wings after flying for too long.

A mere week after he first lifted himself off the ground under his own power, he fell.

He was flying relatively close to the surface of the earth when it happened. Pit's wings seized up from him overworking them. He screamed out for his goddess, but before she could figure out what the problem was she heard a sickening thump.

"Pit? PIT!" she called out in a panic, but all she heard were whimpers. She pulled him back to Skyworld, nausea starting when she laid eyes on his quivering form.

Pit's limbs were bent wrong, and loose from their sockets. She could see bone protruding and splintered, and his white tunic covered in blood that was even now still pouring out of him.

Palutena fought back the urge to vomit and picked him up, ignoring the ear-splitting shriek that Pit let out, and quickly dunked him in the hot spring.

The bleeding stopped. She pulled him out before the hot spring could heal too much of his unset broken bones, still ignoring his cries, and set him down on the floor. She gritted her teeth and started to carefully straighten out his limbs, but he was writhing and crying and weakly begging her to stop.

Time was of the essence, but she had a sinking feeling that the damage was too great for promptness to fully heal. After a moment of indecision, she had a centurion fetch a potion that would put him to sleep. Until then, she stroked his hair and spoke soothingly to Pit, and he slowly quieted.

"I'm sorry Lady Palutena. I should have stopped earlier, but I was having so much fun flying that I didn't even notice that my wings hurt." he spoke hoarsly, the first thought that had come to his mind was apologizing for disobeying Palutena. She merely told him it was alright, even as she looked behind him at his warped wing bones and knew that flying probably wouldn't happen again. Not even with her help.

With great difficulty, she fed the sleeping potion and it worked quickly, his eyes rolling back into his head and his twitching muscles calming. Then came the long task of setting his bones, then putting him back in the hot spring to get as much benefit as possible.

Pit was rather lacking in his usual cheery composure when he woke up. Although he didn't ask and she didn't volunteer the information, he knew anyway that he probably couldn't fly again.

Even he utterly failed at being cheerful when faced with a long life with nothing he had hoped for in his entire memory.

One day, he thought he saw a shadow land far away. Ten minutes later, Pittoo entered his room, bearing a tray with Pit's lunch.

"Um... hey, Pit." he greeted, then set the tray down to avoid displaying the speechlessness he was struck with now.

"Hi Pittoo." he replied softly. A few moments passed in silence, neither moving at all.

"That's your lunch, Pit. I brought that in for you." Pittoo finally said, hoping to break the awkward silence. But Pit just shrugged apathetically.

"I'm not really hungry, thanks though."

Pittoo frowned and ghosted his fingers over his twin's arm.

"But you are. Look, you're kind of skinny."

Pit didn't respond, and didn't say anything to Pittoo again after that. The dark angel, completely at a loss, left before long. He didn't know how to cheer anyone up, especially in this case and couldn't take the atmosphere anymore.

A few days later, a catastrophe happened: the leaderless Underworld troops broke free and began to ravage the overworld. Normally, Palutena would send her trusty captain Pit.

But Pit was in no condition to do anything. His wings were useless and pained him, as did, well, everything else. He could walk, slowly and with support and a limp. His fighting days were over.

So Palutena called Pittoo and asked for his help. He agreed, since he was not averse to helping her when he felt her cause was a good one. With or without her, he was still fighting them so he figured he may as well have her assistance.

For the first few days, Pit hung around and Pittoo and Palutena both tried to spend some time with him every day. A few days later though, the workload was obviously too much to spare any energy. Pittoo nodded off one evening while Pit was trying to tell him about his day, boring as it was. And so Pit told both of them the next day that they should conserve their energy and not waste it on hearing about his day. He hardly did anything anyway.

He didn't like it though. He had just barely begun to lighten up, under the constant attention of his goddess and now occasional chats with his twin, but both were abruptly pulled out from under him. However, Pit was a social creature and couldn't hold up very well to isolation combined with the difficulty of accepting and living with his new physical limitations.

Within days, he couldn't even bring himself to get out of bed in the morning. It hurt to do so, he wasn't really hungry, and there wasn't anything he could do to make it worthwhile. In fact, his chats with Pittoo and Palutena were all he had to look forward to now. And he'd given them away in order to give them their much needed rest. His own troubles, boredom, seemed relatively small in comparison and the need of the countless human victims was greater than the need of a single, useless angel.

Pit grew tired as the days passed, drawing his curtains and only occasionally getting up for sustenance. He slept longer and longer, because being awake meant he could feel the weight of his growing loneliness, and the longer he thought about why he wasn't speaking to anyone the smaller and more pathetic he felt.

One day, an exhausted Palutena did come to see him. It was night, so she didn't question his being in bed and she couldn't see that he'd lost yet more weight. When she asked how he was, he managed to drag a smile onto his face and tell her he was fine. She smiled back and left shortly after, no energy left to detect Pit's lies.

The day came that for a moment, he thought about finishing the job. He was in pain. He had no future. The loneliness was too much, but he couldn't ask for help because nobody had anything to spare. Not for a worthless angel against thousands of humans, and the sanity of a goddess and an angel who could still do good for the world.

When he recognized exactly what he was contemplating, it terrified him enough that he instantly got out of bed, took a bath, and that evening he tried to talk with Pittoo.

He talked about anything, but the only responses were yawns and one word answers. Pit felt his twin's desire to be left alone, and all the energy he'd gained earlier, his body's attempt to make him care for it, was snuffed out as he felt the weight of disappointment drape over him. Pit could hardly make it back to his room, falling to his knees in the hallway and actually crawling back into his room. After he got the door closed, he just lay on the floor for an hour before literally dragging himself back to his bed, then curled tightly into a ball under the covers.

He didn't move for a full day. The heavy weight on his spirit lifted somewhat, and he went on as he had before he tried to talk to Pittoo for awhile. Then the day came that the last Underworld monster, created for nothing but destruction, was defeated.

Pit's eyes lit up, and he got out of bed again, this time driven by hope. Pittoo was done being sent out for awhile, and Pit was ready to have his friends back. He was excited, they would have time for him now!

He asked Pittoo and Palutena about the war, thinking they'd be interested in the topic, but they were sick of talking about it and declined to tell him about it. The fact was, though, Pit had nothing else to talk about because he was so confined. He tried to talk about what he liked to do before his accident, but an impatient Pittoo shut him down harshly, telling him bluntly that he didn't really want to hear about anything Pit wanted to say. It was a response generated simply because he was tired and irritable, but the rejection was heartbreaking for the physically and emotionally exhausted light angel.

Pit's breath hitched as he fought against crying, and when he had it under control he left. Pittoo looked at the limping figure turned away from him, and for a second wanted to call him back and explain himself. But before he could convince himself to, Pit was gone and Pittoo felt it was best to take some time for himself before talking to his twin again.

Later on, a feast was hosted in the temple, but Pit didn't even try to convince himself to go to it. Palutena and Pittoo, completely used to Pit's absence, didn't notice it now. While most of the inhabitants of Skyworld danced and ate, Pit was trying to beat away the waves of despair that threatened to push him under. He hardly noticed the world around him, and was therefore surprised when he found himself at the edge of Skyworld, still in darkness but silence reigning after the feast.

He didn't need to ask himself why he was there though. The beginning of the end of his life was brought on by a fall. It seemed fitting that a fall would finish it.

Once again, this thought brought forth a stab of fear, but it wasn't as strong and this itself terrified Pit. He started shaking as he looked into the blackness below him, and wavered forward a bit.

"No, no no no no no." he muttered through gritted teeth, backing away a few steps and tears beginning to spill as pure survival instinct fought back. But he was losing the battle and he knew it. He hoped, silently begged for someone, anyone, to come outside and talk sense into him. But nobody knew what he was going through, nobody knew they should keep a close eye on him.

Nobody knew how hard he was fighting himself for his own life.

Despite him muttering to himself, begging his body not to take him closer again he found himself with his toes less than an inch from the drop. He wept and told himself he didn't want to do it, but a part of himself that couldn't express itself through words but controlled his body responded by leaning forward a bit. Instinct was still clamoring, but was slowly being overcome. Most of himself had made its choice, and the rest of him was losing against it. It would be so easy, to tip over the edge and stop the pain. But at the same time it was terrifying, the falling and death. He was miserable, but also scared of the change of dying. He was scared to give up. Scared to keep going. Scared that he was here, about to make this choice. The fear froze him and he stood, staring at the blackness for a long time.

He stood there for an hour, two as he calmed himself and the fight mostly quelled. But then, as dawn came...

"Captain? What are you doing there? Lady Palutena said you weren't supposed to be at the edge like that."

Pit gasped, looked behind him. An archer centurion was walking his way. He'd been discovered, and his window of opportunity was closing fast. It was now or never.

Pushed into action like this, taking that step was surprisingly easy. No more conflict, no more internal fighting for just a moment. And that perfect clarity lasted until a particular shout pierced through the other, meaningless shouts Pit was hearing after he'd dropped. It was a cry of understanding, horror and desperation that all happened before the owner of the voice could put into words what had happened. What was happening.

Later, Pittoo thought what was worst about that moment was knowing that Pit was still there, alive, but there was no way to do anything. It was too late, the damage done with nothing to do but watch it play out.

Pit was unhappy at Pittoo's instant desperate scream, but there was nothing anyone could do and before long -

Pit closed his eyes as he reached the trees, and for a moment he was back in Skyworld. His connection allowed him a brief look through Pittoo's eyes, with his twin predictably running to the edge where Pit had last been seen. In his mind, he spoke to Pittoo, saying the only thing he could.

_I'm sorry_

Pittoo stopped when he heard Pit's voice. The seconds stretched out as he let out a soft breath and closed his eyes. It was then that he felt it.

Impact.

He fell to the ground and convulsed, and when he came to his senses again his mind was frozen. He heard his name, no, Pit's, being called and numbly stood, flapped his wings and followed after his counterpart. His ears roared, his body was acting on pure instinct with his mind broken. He didn't need to search, he was drawn right to where he needed to be.

Seeing the broken angel brought back sound and thoughts. He choked out Pit's name, not quite getting the full word out and dropped to the ground. He couldn't stop staring, looking for any movement but not finding it. Pittoo crawled over and reached out, hesitating right before he touched the body. That first contact broke down all barriers and he wrapped his arms around the angel, pulling him into his lap and putting both hands on either side of the still face. He leaned down a mere inch from Pit's face and urgently whispered his name, hoping to feel and hear his breath but knowing it wouldn't happen. He kept calling Pit's name, getting progressively louder as his attempts to wake his twin became more desperate. Soon, he could no longer look at the glassy, half open eyes. He closed his own eyes and pressed his forehead to Pit's already cold one. Pittoo unconsciously twined his fingers in Pit's hair, clenching and releasing his hands repeatedly while rocking slightly. He started to let out pathetic whines as he tried to hold back his growing despair.

The hair-grasping stopped and he pulled Pit close, still rocking. His soft cries progressed to wracking sobs as he clutched the dead angel tightly, unable to let go.

Eventually, he felt himself being beamed to Skyworld where Palutena got him to loosen his hold enough for her to see Pit's face. She looked away immediately, unable to contain her own shocked grief. It was bad enough the first time, but she was wise enough to know exactly what had happened and why, and that they could have prevented it. Partly, the problem was simply that the war came along right when Pit needed support the most, and took away their ability to give him what he needed. Then, he broke under the neglect.

Some time passed, with no sound but the gasping and occasional cries. Eventually, Palutena tried to take charge again. Pit was dead, and they had to start preparing for his funeral.

Pittoo didn't notice when she ordered a centurion strongarm to take the rapidly cooling body from him, but he sure as hell noticed when it obeyed her and tried to pry Pit's body from his grasp.

Five centurions ended up dead before she called them away from the snarling angel.

Palutena stood and watched Pittoo, then she knelt down and started whispering to him to let go. She began to pull the light angel away herself. Pittoo's red eyes made contact with hers, and he didn't resist.

A centurion took the body away.

Pittoo went to his room, mechanically washed the blood off. And fell asleep.

He dreamed, dreamed that he was walking through a place that he knew well, it held many interesting areas. Some had weapons, and fighting. Competition. Some had grass, and blue skies. There was even a small place where a single ice cream sundae sat on the ground, and Pittoo smiled at it. Much though he tried to deny his connection and similarities with his counterpart, he actually inherited quite a lot from him. A fondness for ice cream was one of those things. He saw a thunderstorm in a dead forest in another spot. Then a small, dark corner with a figure caught his eye.

He rushed to it, knowing who it was without even thinking about it. He knelt down and caught the hunched over shoulders in his hands, and shook violently.

"Pit! What the fuck, Pit! Why the hell would you do that? Why did you do that?"

His voice caught and he had to stop shouting for a moment.

"Why am I even seeing you? You're not real, this is a dream."

To his surprise, Pit looked up (his body was whole, unbroken and Pittoo was grateful for this) and shook his head.

"No. Our souls are connected. The only way to keep you alive was to join you. You don't need to do anything though, I'll just stay here. You don't need to do anything to stay alive."

"But- that means I can demand an explanation! Why?!"

Pit looked away, looking somewhat troubled.

"I couldn't do it anymore, Pittoo. I just couldn't."

"You could have asked for help, Pit! Why didn't you?"

Pit looked at his red eyed twin.

"I did. You brushed me off."

Pittoo gritted his teeth.

"That's not fucking fair, Pit. I was tired. If you'd been a little patient- I was planning to hang out with you today!"

"Why am I expected to have eternal patience?" Pit asked rhetorically, looking annoyed. "I was patient, for a long time. But it hurt, Pittoo. It hurt so much."

He looked down and his hair hung in front of his face. Pittoo's expression softened.

"Does it still hurt?" he asked. Pit looked up and smiled a little.

"Not nearly as much."

Pittoo let out a breath.

"That's good. I suppose the best I can hope for now is that you're not in pain. So what, you're just kind of permanently here- what the hell?"

Pittoo felt himself being abruptly pulled away and he opened his eyes to Palutena shaking him, panic on her face. He'd gone to sleep, then stayed that way until the next day. She was afraid he was being affected by Pit's death and decided to force him awake.

"Oh." was all he had to say when she explained herself. Then...

"I found Pit."

She paused.

"You... what?"

"Pit. He told me that to keep me alive, he had to join me. He's- I think his soul is with mine."

Palutena gasped, then put a hand on Pittoo's black hair and concentrated. She looked up in surprise and relief.

"You're right." she breathed. Then she backed away, the spark of happiness muted.

"But he's still dead. I can't bring him back, Pittoo. If there was a way to fix his body, I would have done it when he got hurt in the first place."

"Well, I think I can visit him. When I'm asleep, that is. He was lonely."

Palutena sighed regretfully. If he'd hung on a little longer, things would have improved for him. But she couldn't judge him for giving up either, not when he had nobody to help him for all that time, and when he needed them the most. All that could be done was to go through with the funeral, burning the body and scattering the ashes to the wind. Pittoo spent a lot of time asleep at first, visiting Pit at every opportunity, but regretfully cut back on this. However, something odd began to happen. He was dealing with some arguing humans one day when he heard, in his mind, a sarcastic and impatient comment about the stupidity of the argument. It was the sort of thing Pittoo might think, and in his voice, but it wasn't like his own thoughts. That night, Pit confirmed that he'd been able to watch and project his own opinion, although only for a short time.

Within a few months, Pit was always there in his skull, giving up commentary and eventually having full conversations with others through his twin.

All in all, neither thought this was a terrible arrangement. It wasn't the first choice, but Pittoo would rather have no privacy than lose Pit forever. And Pit was happy. He was sorry to have invaded like this, but was grateful that Pittoo welcomed him and he liked being alive, after a fashion.

What had happened was terrible, nobody denied it. Pit didn't like to think about that time, although eventually he shared with his twin the memories of the days before he ended his life. Just so that Pittoo would understand. When confronted with it, he had nothing to say beyond an apology for his behavior. What was there to say? Pit was also sorry, because he knew Pittoo hadn't deserved to have such a small action reap such consequences, and without Pit there to help him through it the whole thing might have damaged him more.

Eventually, although Pit didn't want to, Pittoo decided to leave Skyworld. He wasn't created to serve the goddess of Light like Pit had been, and wanted to go his own way. He was happy to help, when needed but it was time to go. Pit said his goodbyes to her and the pair spent years travelling, seeing the sights. They were never alone and sometimes went back to Skyworld to help out with a mission, give information that Palutena found useful, and to get to know the new angel Palutena had created to replace Pit. The little boy grew up not realizing until he was much older that Pittoo and his other personality, Pit, were a rather unusual phenomenon.

And when the youth became old enough to fly on his own, nobody took their eyes off him until his wings had strengthened enough for him to rely on. Nobody wanted to see another angel become crippled.

* * *

**And here is where I feel I need to put a disclaimer, because the issues here are serious things. Killing yourself will not result in being put into someone else's head. That is a lucky option for Pit specifically, because he's from a fanfiction within a ****fictional universe**. But seriously, suicide isn't a joke. There's always something you're missing, even if you can't see it from where you are. And it never, ever comes without consequence. I mostly wrote it as consequence free as I did because I have a hard time hurting Pit and not giving him some sort of out.

**I just really don't want to have people reading this and it tipping them over any edges, because my goal is purely artistic/cathartic and reading this may have hurt.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sooo this is an alternate ending to the last chapter. Done mostly because I wanted to see the confrontation that would occur between the twins if Pit were rescued.**

* * *

There was shouting.

Although she hadn't noticed his state, Palutena was instantly alerted to the panic going on following Pit's jump. Dart was also instantly aware of what was happening to his twin, so when they met in the hallway outside the twins' rooms, both were on the same page.

With a quick gesture, Palutena teleported both herself and the dark angel to the doorway, and she unceremoniously pushed him towards it. He got the hint and jumped.

Luckily, Skyworld was high enough that falling took some time, and Dart had just passed through a door that was below Skyworld, and fortunately Pit as well. He began a controlled fall himself, as catching Pit at a standstill would probably hurt. His preparation paid off, and within a minute he had his brother slung over his shoulder. He tried to get a response out of the angel, but Pit said nothing.

All he could process was that he was no longer falling, and he didn't even hear Dart speaking to him. Nor did he feel that his arm dislocated from being caught, despite the pain it should have caused.

Being brought before his goddess and laid on the ground didn't help either, and before long he simply passed out.

When he woke up, he was back in his bed. His mind was still blank, but what had transpired early that morning came back to him soon enough.

He wanted to break down and cry. Whether from relief that he had been stopped, or disappointment that he was still alive he didn't know.

He remembered that Dart had been there, and of course he now saw familiar green hair in the blurry recollection of that morning. He wanted to groan. It was one thing feeling all those things himself, another thing entirely others finding out what lengths he had wanted to go to.

An acute discomfort wedged its way into Pit's awareness, although the source confused him. Beyond the pain he was accustomed to (and his arm in a sling), he was perfectly clean and comfortable. (great, somebody had given him a bath, too. Just what he needed, the knowledge that somebody had seen him naked)

Nothing physical was bothering him.

Instinct made him sharply turn his head, and he gasped to see a pair of red eyes burning into him.

Pit's eyelids lowered slightly and he opened his mouth to say something, anything to his brother. But words failed him. He wanted to tell Dart everything, and yet nothing at the same time. Where should he even start?

Before Pit figured that out, Dart eliminated the need.

"What was that, Pit?" he asked, a chill to his voice. His voice trembled slightly, but Pit knew instantly it was out of restrained anger. And for the first time in weeks, he just wanted to be alone.

"I-I just-"

"Why the hell would you do that? What were you thinking? How could you do that to us? I just get done mopping up Underworld troops, and before I've had a chance to catch my breath I have to go stop you from killing yourself! Couldn't you wait a few days, or something? Or better yet, just get over yourself and behave like a normal person. There was no reason for that! I don't get it, was this just a game to you, or-"

Pit felt the full force of Dart's rage, and with every sharp word shrank back a little more. He tried to cut into the furious diatribe, but Dart was so loud and Pit so drained that he couldn't do more than squeak ineffectively a few times.

Normally, he'd yell right back at Dart. Now, he simply couldn't handle his brother's anger.

Dart cut off abruptly when Pit, now curled tightly into a ball, started shaking and weeping. And he suddenly wasn't angry, but rather anxious and slightly frantic.

"Pit- I'm sorry, I just- what do you want me to do?!" he nearly wailed at the other angel. When Pit didn't show any signs of stopping, he stood from his chair and knelt on the bed, reaching out. He touched Pit's shoulder.

Pit jerked and looked up, gasping when he saw the change in his brother's demeanor. They stared at each other for several moments as Dart fumbled for words. Something had clearly gone very wrong with his twin, and he wanted to fix it. The yelling apparently hadn't helped, and that was his default.

"Listen, Pit- I guess I'm not really mad at you, I just- I don't know what to think. And I don't know what to say. You scared the shit out of me, you still are! I don't know how to deal with crying! I don't know how to deal with you, acting like- well, you freaking jumped off of Skyworld!"

Dart had been gesturing wildly, agitated but having to curb his normal 'fight' reaction to fear. His yelling now made sense to Pit, if he had indeed been scared. Dart liked to yell to mask fear.

"I don't know how to explain it to you." he replied in a soft voice that calmed the other somewhat. At least he'd had stopped crying. Dart could deal with a not-crying Pit.

"Well, are you gonna do it again?" he asked gruffly. But he didn't like the answer.

"I don't know." Pit sighed. Dart furrowed his eyebrows slightly.

"Well then I won't give you the opportunity to." he concluded simply. Pit nodded tiredly. Dart watched him for several moments, taking in the unkempt hair, the dull eyes, the slightly protruding cheekbones. He realized that this morning would have been the ending of something that was a long time coming.

"What happened to you, Pit?"

The light angel blinked and looked up. He wasn't expecting such a calm question, but he could see Dart's genuine concern now. The yelling earlier was a reaction to Pit's desperate action. But this, this showed him that the darker angel did care about what was wrong. He just had to be pushed to admit it.

"Isn't it obvious? Look at me." he answered, twitching his ruined wings. But Dart shook his head.

"That can't be all. I know you better than that. You were doing ok when I got here."

"Bad timing, I suppose."

Dart was about to protest, but he thought about it first. He thought back to the past several weeks, where he only saw his brother maybe two or three times a week. Hindsight showed him how Pit restrained himself for his sake, so he could get some rest. And how tired he had looked after awhile.

He remembered the day before, when he watched a clearly devastated Pit leave his presence.

Dart wanted to hit himself.

But at the same time, he knew Pit was right. He had needed to focus his attention on his task, at the same time that Pit needed him. He supposed Palutena had her share of blame here, but the same was true of her. And at the same time, Pit was also right to give them their space. The problem was simply that there was not enough time, and it was at a critical point in Pit's recovery. And it was so easy to forget that, once his body was as healed as it was going to get, Pit still was recovering. Dart cringed slightly to think of what it would be like to lose his flight.

And for someone like Pit, being neglected would be hard enough, even though it wasn't out of malice. Under his circumstances, it broke him. Dart was really just lucky that Palutena was a quick thinker and had a door placed under Skyworld.

And now he was kind of mad, because although he didn't regret keeping his word to help Palutena, he hated what it had cost his brother.

Dart wouldn't make that mistake again. Palutena could find somebody else to do her work. He had too little in this world to risk losing the only person he knew for a fact mattered to him.

And Pit deserved everything he had to give.

"I'm not going to let that happen to you again." he finally said. Pit didn't say anything, and they both sat for a few minutes.

"So what's going to happen now?" Pit asked. Nothing was the same now, or rather his brother and his goddess both now knew exactly how things were. How dangerous his own mind had become. Although he had despaired at Dart's initial reaction, he now allowed himself to feel hope.

"You're going to eat lunch." Dart said firmly.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"Yeah, but we've talked enough for today. I can't handle anymore."

Dart suddenly frowned at Pit, an unsure look on his face.

"Unless... I guess I shouldn't say that. Do you really want to talk more about what happened?"

Pit shook his head. He was ok with forgetting it for now.

Palutena visited later, and although she wanted to try to smooth things over with Pit, she held herself back. She knew Dart had confronted him, and had an idea how the scene went. Pit needed some time before having to rehash it with her, so she restricted her role to showering him with the love and affection he wanted and needed.

It would be days until Pit began to voluntarily talk, but from that first night Dart decided not to cut corners and slept right in the same bed as Pit. The light angel couldn't even roll over without alerting his twin, who would wake instantly and reach out to make sure Pit was still there and breathing.


End file.
